A Toy for the Scientist

Brian was absolutely no help in offering up his wish list for Christmas this year so I decided to peruse our local upscale toy store for a creative gift of some sort. I remember reading about Buckyballs on C. Jane's blog so they were on my radar of possibilities. I found Nano dots instead. (I wonder which brand is the original.) They were pricey, but I had to get SOMETHING fun for Brian to accompany the boring shirts and ties I had already purchased.

Source

Ironically, they were the very last present we opened at our house on Christmas day. They had fallen beneath a chair almost lost and forgotten. Brian opened them in the usual cheerful and grateful manner, but I sensed a bit of indifference.

The kids were the ones who found them the most entertaining over the next few weeks. I left them out on our kitchen counter to encourage creativity and to deter the kids from their usual down time activities of TV and computer games. I had a bit of success.

Among other things, Abby made a mouse

and Travis made an elephant.

One evening last week I forced the Nano dots into my husband's hands and told him to "play" while I finished up dinner.

Suddenly, his indifference turned to curiosity and amazement.

"This is really interesting!"

"The minimization of energy is so different than what I expected."

"No wonder the lattices have dislocations."

HUH?

On and on it went. I laughed at him and then wrote it all down. He was hooked. A successful gift--appreciated a few weeks late, but appreciated none the less.

I love that scientist of mine.